The NWSL is where Sam Kerr made her reputation as one of the preeminent forwards in women’s soccer history.
She played in the league’s debut season in 2013 as a teenager, played three seasons for Gotham FC in its earlier incarnation as Sky Blue and left the U.S. States in 2019 with two MVP awards and the league’s all-time scoring record — before going on to greater global stardom with perennial English champions Chelsea and Team Australia.
But as the 32-year-old said Thursday, Day 1 of a contract she signed with Gotham that runs through 2030, “I always had a desire to come back to the NWSL.” And and when she made up her mind to depart Chelsea this summer, “It was really the only league I saw myself in.”
That narrows it down a bit. Yet Kerr had several suitors in the NWSL, she said, and the “really difficult” multi-month recruitment process “came down to the little things that were important to me.”
“Sam could have played for any club in the world, and she chose Gotham,” president of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West said.
So why Gotham? Let’s fire off some reasons, like so many shots on goal from the striker who will be eligible to debut in the team’s July 15 match at Citi Field:
— The team’s ambitions. “Gotham is probably the most similar club to Chelsea in their desires and what they want from a season,” Kerr said, describing the 2023 and 2025 NWSL champions and inaugural CONCACAF W Champions Cup winners as “a club that is always aspiring to win something, win the game, win whatever trophy they can.”
— The roster. “It helps that they have some of the best players in the league,” Kerr said. She called star midfielder Rose Lavelle “one of the key players I thought that I would love to play with.” Averbuch West said there have been meetings to discuss how Kerr will fit with incumbent center forward Esther González.
— The coach. Kerr “heard really good things” about Juan Carlos Amorós. “When I spoke to him, he impressed me tactically,” she said. “When you play in a team that creates a lot of goal-scoring opportunities, as a nine [striker], that’s the No. 1 thing that you want.”
— The GM’s pitch. “A lot of credit has to go to Yael because she did a lot of work to get me here,” Kerr said. Averbuch West described nearly six months of “a lot of phone calls with me and her agent.”
— The wife’s reference. Kerr is married to former USWNT midfielder Kristie Mewis, who left Gotham in 2023 after two seasons. “It is important that Kristie played here and knows us and had a really good experience,” Averbuch West said.
— The money, of course. Last month, Gotham added to its cache of allocation money, which can be used on salaries above the NWSL’s hard cap, by trading promising young defender Lilly Reale to expansion Boston. “It’s about making an offer that shows respect to the player and also getting creative about what we do,” Averbuch West said.
— The location. Kerr briefly and accurately referred to the chance to “live in the best city in the world.”
